The Mysterious Betz Sphere Case – Was It An Alien Artifact ?

In March 27, 1974, members of the Betz family were inspecting the damage done by a small brush-fire near their property on Ft. George Island, Florida. The island is a patch of dry ground among the coastal marshlands of northeastern Florida, well timbered with beautiful moss-draped trees and tropical scrub. Antoine and Jerri Betz, accompanied by their 21-year-old son Terry, happened to stumble upon a weird object: a bright metal globe, about the size of a bowling ball, sitting there in the grass. It was quite heavy, so at first hey guessed it might have been an old cannonball; the island has a long history going all the way back to a 16th century Spanish mission. They liked the ball and decided to take it home. And that’s when the Betzes’ lives changed.

The first indecent accrued when Terry was playing his guitar. The family reported that the ball strangely resonated the music, it began to move around, all on its own. The Betzes experimented with it, placed it on their table, and watched it navigate its own way around the perimeter without falling off. Doors began slamming themselves around the house. Mysterious organ music filled the residence, even though there was no organ. When Terry struck the ball with a metal object (like a metal tool) it produced a ringing sound. They also found the ball was sensitive to weather conditions: sunny days produced more activity than cloudy days. Direct heat or infrared seemed to have no effect on it. Finally the Betzes had had enough, and contacted the newspapers in the hope that someone might tell them what the bizarre artifact was.

The Jacksonville Journal sent a photographer, Lou Egner. Mrs. Betz told him to put the sphere on the floor:

“It rolled a ways then stopped. So what? She said, ‘Just wait a minute.’ It turned by itself and rolled to the right about four feet. It stopped. Then it turned again and rolled to the left about eight feet, made a big arc and came right back to my feet.”

What followed was something of a media frenzy. At this point, the Betz family began to consider the possibility that they might be in possession of some type of alien space probe, so they decided to have scientific test done on the object. The “ball from space” was examined by Dr Carl Williston of Omega Minus One, an institution located in the state of Louisiana at the time. In his six hours of testing, Dr Williston found that the sphere contained three magnetic poles and a possible fourth. He stated that the aspect of the magnetic field was a mind bender, the flux density of the field appeared to vary in strength based on an unknown pattern. Simply stated, the power of the magnetic portion varied up and down. Back in 1974, this phenomenon was not part of our known physics. The same applied to the multiple poles.

An x-ray was taken of the object which revealed 3 similar spheroid shapes within the ball. Curiously, these 3 shapes had a “halo” surrounding them, as though they were surrounded by a material with a different density. The metal was similar to stainless steel, but had some unknown content making it slightly different.

Conclusions: This unusual ball was a magnetic sphere sensitive to magnetic fields, numerous sound emissions, and mechanical stimulation. It was both passive and active. If it was an extraterrestrial probe, it might possibly be in a damaged state.

Where is the Betz ball today? There is no certainty as to its present location. If someone made the metal sphere, they apparently went through a lot of trouble (and money) to create it as well as they did. It makes no sense that they did not bother to try and retrieve it. Perhaps, the “ball from space” might, indeed, be just that… something from beyond our Earth.